His face drops, and he looks at me with the saddest expression. “I’m so sorry. For everything.”
The box hovers in the space between us until he takes it.
“You didn’t just take a sledgehammer to my heart, Callan. You shredded everything that made meme.” It’s a miracle I can talk over the messy ball of emotion wedged in my throat, but I need to get this out. “I couldn’t stomach maple cake. I’d feel sick every time one of our songs played on the radio. Any time a football match came on the TV, I’d have to leave the room. My last Ferris wheel ride was the London Eye, where you promised to love me forever.”
Pain claws at my chest and twists my insides into knots. “I loved Ryemont, but I was terrified I’d keep bumping into you two. There were triggers everywhere. Constant reminders of what I thought had been us. You drove me from my home. Tore me from the only security I’d ever known.”
“I was trying to keep you safe.” His face is contorted, and he looks pale as death. “It doesn’t excuse all the ways I hurt you, but I never wanted to cause you pain. I was doing what I felt was the right thing to protect you and Darcy from her.”
Tears blur my vision. “I was in therapy for years, trying to figure out what I did wrong. The never-ending sadness and anger almost consumed me. I constantly wondered why I wasn’t good enough for you. Questioning why she got the happily ever after you promised me. The joint betrayal shattered my trust in people. In men. It’s taken years to crawl out of the dark hole Iwas in, but I did it. I reclaimed my self-worth, and I drew a line under the unanswered questions. I was moving on, but now?”
I sniffle and angrily swipe at the tears coursing down my face. “Now, I’m back, and you’re here, and you look at me the way you used to, and you say you didn’t cheat, yet your daughter is your mini-me, and I’m so confused, and—” I bury my face in my hands and cry.
“Astrid. Please don’t cry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” His soft tone tries to reach inside me, but I can’t let it.
What the fuck am I doing? Blurting all that out and crying my eyes out in front of him?
He places a pack of tissues on the desk in front of me, and I pull one out, dabbing at my eyes and blowing my nose. “I can’t let you destroy my life again, Callan.”
“That’s the last thing I want.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I couldn’t sleep last night worrying about you. I get that he’s pissed, but he should be taking it out on me, not you.” He places his business card on the desk in front of me. “My personal phone number is on the back. I’m here for you if you ever need me, no questions asked. Call anytime. I won’t ever push you, Astrid, but you need to hear what I have to say.” His eyes probe mine with nothing but concern. “I will drop everything when you’re ready to talk.”
“I don’t know if I can go there,” I truthfully admit. What I don’t say is how scared I am that what he has to tell me might change everything.
“I can be patient. I’ve waited years to tell you what really happened. I can wait a little longer.”
A pregnant pause ensues as we stare at one another. Emotion mushrooms in my chest as I look at the man who was the boy I was once so deeply in love with. It hurts to look at him. To see the longing in his eyes because I don’t understand it. Theline between truth and lie is submerging, and I’m torn. What if he’s telling the truth? What if he didn’t betray me, and she was blackmailing him in some way?Didhe rip my heart apart to protect me from that crazy bitch?
“Astrid.” His voice is choked, and I see the same tsunami of emotions glistening in his eyes. “I never thought we’d end up here.”
My cell vibrates with an incoming message, and it drags me back to reality. “You need to go, Callan,” I say as I read Seán’s message, opening my desk drawer and removing my purse.
“I’ll go.” He picks up the cold coffee as I power down my laptop. “I just want to say one thing.”
I glance up at him.
“She didn’t get your happily ever after. She never had me, because I’ve always been yours.”
He crosses the room, eating up the distance quickly with his long-legged stride, and slips outside, leaving me staring after him, cradling my heart in my hands.
I frown when I step inside our house and spot the cases stacked against the wall in the hall. “Seán?” I call out.
Footsteps come running down the stairs. “Good, you’re here.” His brow is creased with concern, and his hair is all messy, like he’s constantly been running his hands through it.
“What’s wrong?” All his message said was there was an emergency, and I needed to come home ASAP.
“My father had a heart attack. He’s at the hospital, and they’re not sure if he’s going to make it.”
“Oh no. That’s terrible. I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have much time to pack. I’ve called the jet, and we need to leave in forty minutes, so you best hurry. I’ll send a team up here later to pack everything else, and I’ll call the realtor to put the house back on the market.”
“Wait. What? Why would you need to do that?” I follow him into the living room.
“Even if my father pulls through, I’ll be needed to run the entire corporation.” He begins pulling books from the bookcase in the corner. “We won’t be returning here.”
